During the year of Monica, whenever any on the Left discussed Clinton in the MSM, they had to concede that (1) having an affair in the Whitehouse was bad and (2) lying to the American people about the affair was bad. Then, the the person would say that while they find Clinton's personal actions abhorent, that is Clinton's personal life and now let's talk about his policies. It seemed to be a requirement in order to speak in the MSM.
Today, it's clear to me that (1) outing a CIA officer (covert or not) was bad and (2) lying to the American people about it for two years was bad. Yet, the Right's standard seems to be that Rove didn't knowingly commit a crime, so nothing bad was done.
Let's look at the standards that White House
set:
Q Scott, what do you say to people out there who are watching this, perhaps, and saying, you know, I voted for George Bush because he promised to change the way things work in Washington. And, yet, his spokesman --
MR. McCLELLAN: And he has.
Q -- and, yet, his spokesman is saying that there's no internal, even, questioning of whether or not people were involved in this and he's just letting that be handled at the Justice Department, and letting it be more of a criminal investigation, as opposed to almost an ethical --
MR. McCLELLAN: Dana, I mean, think about what you're asking. If you have specific information to bring to our attention --
Q No, but you say that --
MR. McCLELLAN: -- that suggests White House involvement. There are anonymous reports all the time in the media. The President has set high standards, the highest of standards for people in his administration. He's made it very clear to people in his administration that he expects them to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration.
Then there is the President himself (link):
QUESTION: Given -- given recent developments in the CIA leak case, particularly Vice President Cheney's discussions with the investigators, do you still stand by what you said several months ago, a suggestion that it might be difficult to identify anybody who leaked the agent's name?
THE PRESIDENT: That's up to --
QUESTION: And, and, do you stand by your pledge to fire anyone found to have done so?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. And that's up to the U.S. Attorney to find the facts.
So clearly, leaking Plame's name warrants being kicked out of this administration. Lying about not leaking it is obviously wrong. I don't know if Rove broke the law, but that shouldn't matter. Clinton didn't break the law by having an affair in the White House and then lying about it to the American people. The affair and the lying were morally and ethically repugnant and he was rightfully denounced by both the Right, Left and MSM for having done them. Yet, Republicans can apparently go on the MSM and not be forced to answer these two simple questions: (1) Is it morally wrong for someone in the administration to out an CIA agent? and (2) is it morally wrong to lie about not outing the CIA agent? Where are our standards, both morally and journalistically?
